#kertik

[turboslothinc]

19th December, 2019 - 150,000 people in Mumbai protest the new Citizenship Amendment Act, and the subsequent police brutality at Muslim Universities, where students were dragged out of dorms and libraries and beaten, maimed, and blinded.

There have been protests all over India this past week, in all major and minor cities. This new law is partisan, fascist and discriminates against the Muslim community, who form around >14% of the Indian population (~11% of the worlds Muslims live in India), and violates the secular ideals of the Indian constitution.

Nationwide there have been thousands of arrests in response to peaceful demonstrating - there has been state sponsored terror, violence, bus-burning, Section 144 (prohibits assembly of more than 4 people in an area, aka no right to protest) has been imposed in entire states, the Internet, SMS and data services have been suspended.

These pictures are just Bombay. Imagine what the country looks like.

[sophrosynic]

kertik

  for-marginalized-bw-only: rosezeee: ...

shes eastern european and therefore does not qualify for the “white woman” trope…and who exactly asked to have a competition between michelle and melania.

She lives in America and is largely viewed as a white woman by the majority of the folks in America. This doesn’t mean she doesn’t face xenophobia, and there’s been lots of it. But the vast majority of people in the USA at least don’t make much of a distinction between Eastern Europeans vs. other white people.

And nobody’s ‘asking’ for a competition between Michelle and Melania, but there is definitely a double standard in terms of how white women and black women are viewed and treated by people. Melania gets the presumption of innocence and is seen as a victim almost immediately, and while I’m sure that she definitely doesn’t have a healthy marriage with Donald Trump, there’s really been very little to indicate that she doesn’t share at least some of his racism (she was pretty vocal about supporting the birther conspiracy when it came to Obama). Meanwhile, Michelle Obama and black women in general have to go out of their way to conform to certain notions of femininity, to appear non-threatening, and even with that, they aren’t given anywhere near the benefit of the doubt that Melania gets from the media and people at large. I don’t think anybody’s invoking a competition as much as they’re trying to point out this double standard.

[sophrosynic]

kertik: i dont think melania is the right tandem to be stepped on to talk about michelle obama. thats all

I don’t think anyone’s stepping on Melania Trump in order to defend Michelle Obama. Melania’s clearly married to a man with a history of domestic abuse, who has likely also abused her, and who definitely has the means and the gumption to go after her if she were to divorce him or leave the marriage in any way. All of these facts are true, and she deserves sympathy on that front, but I don’t think it’s wrong to point out the media coverage that she’s getting for this and the way people have immediately rushed to defend her, even as they quibble about whether or not the racist vitriol and harassment that Michelle Obama (and black women in general for that matter) face is actually a real thing. This doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t feel sympathetic for Melania, or that she deserves that abuse, or even that the scale of the coverage is wrong. It’s just that this is yet another example where the experiences of white women vs. women of colour are treated in completely different ways and with different levels of sympathy. And a lot of that has to do with how people view white women vs. black women, especially when they are victims.

[sophrosynic]

kertik

  kertik  ...

bigotry against east europeans manifests in more ways than one, even though they look essentially white.. for eg: she has been called a mail order bride for years. even now her accent is the funniest kick people get out of her. i dont think a critical analysis is really necessary because even the nutjob republicans would agree that melania doesnt fit the first lady image.

That’s what I mean when I said that she definitely faces xenophobia from people at large, but I don’t think it’s true that Republicans agree about her not fitting the First Lady image. Plenty of people have come out and stated that they’re glad she’s First Lady now because she’s going to “bring back some class” to the White House, and made some pretty reprehensible comments about Michelle Obama in the process. Melania fits enough of the criteria to be First Lady for them, and I don’t think she has faced the same level of dehumanization from the Republicans so far.

[bintrushd]

@kertik a réagi à votre billet “kertik: “this conversation could’ve been avoided”this is the attitude...”

Regardless of you not being south asian (though people who reblogged from you clearly were) the reply was indeed to two different people talking about their experience as an atheist and an ex muslim, who explained who the "zionist" namecalling is used actively against them and all that's wrong with calling them "native informants".how is any of that irrelevant when OP is putting their identities in double quotes and even "disagreeing" with how they identify

What was up with misquoting me though? Because I never implied in any way that this kind of things shouldn’t be talked about or that this conversation shouldn’t happen, but it’s missing the point to like mention Malaysia out of the blue (or any other country) when the post was clearly centered on a Western context. Honestly, re-read my reply because I addressed all you’re saying already and that’s what the OP was saying too. If you are not a person with public exposure, banking on your “Muslim-ness” or on your Muslim background, to promote islamophobic and imperial policies then you’re not a native informant. Considering what is at stake, it’s totally legitimate to put into question the identity of ex-muslim. I could speak about my own experience too, you aren’t the only ones who have struggled with their religion at one point or another, that still doesn’t change the fact that it is irrelevant because that was about how US/Western imperialism is fed into here in the first place.

[tomarza-blog]

happy birthday :)

thanks!!!!

[halalchampagnesocialist]

happy birthday :)

thank you :)